The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Private William Augustin Begley, Jr., (ASN: 1709131), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company G, 308th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Charlevaux, France, October 2 – 6, 1918. When his battalion was surrounded in the Argonne Forest, October 3-7 Private Begley took charge of his squad, after the corporal had been killed and despite the fact that he was wounded in the arm by a machine-gun bullet, encouraged his men through all the attacks of the four days until he was killed October 6.